Promises of Dinner
by SilentStarlightSky
Summary: Squall and Rinoa promise each other to try to mend their relationships with their fathers. Rinoa goes out to dinner with her father, and Squall agrees to go to dinner with Laguna. Light and humorous.


Promises of Dinner

Balamb Garden was in the midst of another busy day of classes and activities much like any other. Cadets and SeeDs alike were walking through the halls on their errands, while others chatted about tests or played cards to pass the time between classes. Every so often a hint of pizza wafted into the hallway as lunch was in full swing.

Selphie and Rinoa stood in the hall outside of the cafeteria in deep conversation. "I can't believe how badly that went!" Rinoa exclaimed to Selphie. "I know Squall and I promised each other to at least make an effort with making amends with our fathers, but ACK! THAT MAN is so hard to get along with! I can't believe we mostly share the same DNA. He cares about his stupid work more than he even cares about his relationship with me. I feel like that was a wasted trip." She leaned back on the Balamb Garden Cafeteria sign while sighing loudly. Selphie flapped her arms unsure of whether to give Rinoa a comforting hug or not.

Selphie thought, _"if Rinoa could just pretend that General Caraway was Squall it would be much easier for her to get along with him. They are both uptight military types, and that's not the only similarity either. Why is she so repulsed by the one yet attracted by the other?"_ Selphie didn't want to get into an argument with her friend, so she wisely kept her mouth shut while nodding sympathetically and hopping from foot to foot.

At that moment Squall happened to be walking towards the cafeteria in order to grab a quick lunch before more afternoon administrative meetings. Spotting Rinoa in her long blue sweater, he headed towards her intending to catch up and ask about her trip to Deling City. As he approached he noticed Rinoa and Selphie seemed to be in a heated conversation with many flailing limbs. As he listened he picked up the words "father" and "never listens" over the noise in the crowded hallway. Not wanting to deal at the moment with Rinoa he tried to avoid the scene by turning and going the other way. Sadly, the main Balamb Garden hallway was a big circle, so he ended up doubling back on them anyways.

"SQUALL! Come over here! SQUALL!" Selphie yelled while jumping excitedly.

_"Well, there is no way to avoid this now,"_ he thought, as he walked towards Rinoa while rolling his eyes and taking a deep breath. "Welcome back Rinoa," he said while giving her a quick nod. "I hope you had a good time with your father in Deling City." _"It's so obvious she had a terrible time, that even I can notice,"_ he winced to himself. _"Not good..."_

"I have so much to tell you Squall, Caraway was unbelievable. You'd think he would appreciate that I'm putting in an effort to be cordial and reconnect with him." Rinoa sighed again while looking down at her feet dejectedly. She seemed to be deep in her thoughts for a bit. Squall decided that it was time to make a hasty retreat now that she seemed to be done venting her emotions. Ever since he had walked over he had been unable to look at Rinoa directly as he never really had been able to comfortably handle anything dealing with family issues. He had enough of his own personal issues to deal with without being burdened with more. His stomach growled like a lion and he decided to continue onwards to the cafeteria. A hand shot out and abruptly grabbed his sleeve halting his progress towards the cafeteria. Shocked and uncomfortable at the unwelcome invasion of his personal space and complete disregard towards his official SeeD uniform, he tried to gently free himself when another hand shot out and grabbed his other sleeve. Selphie and Rinoa were not going to let this conversation drop as they both pulled on his uniform. He could hear the seams stretching to their limit as they were working up to say something. _"Definitely not good,"_ he thought.

"Squall, Rinoa was just telling me how you BOTH agreed to put some effort into patching things up with your fathers," Selphie chirped. "She tried having dinner with her father, so I guess it's your turn next, right? Hopefully it will be better than Rinoa's experience though." Squall's eyes kept nervously looking between the girls and the corridor to the cafeteria. He would anxiously be running his hands through his glossy brown hair if his arms were free. Since he couldn't do that, his feet shuffled in anticipation of being able to get away from them.

_"I should be more careful with what promises I make Rinoa in the future,"_ Squall thought. _"Sometimes it's just like I can't help myself when I'm around her. What is the matter with me!?"_

Rinoa was seemingly unaware of Squall's inner monologue as she continued talking about her trip. "Part of my problem was that I attempted meeting with Caraway without any backup support from my friends. That was probably a mistake," Rinoa mused aloud while tightening her grip on Squall. "He probably would have maybe been a bit more civil if there were other people around. You know, people that CARE about me." Rinoa timidly looked up at Squall trying to catch his glance. Squall looked down to avert his eyes from her sad face. Her eyes got big and cute while slightly welling with tears. He couldn't help but be swayed by her adorable yet somewhat manipulative patented Rinoa-Sad-Face.

"I think it'd be only fair if Squall met up with Sir Laguna now!" Selphie squeaked.

"Yeah Squall, I put up with Caraway, you should meet up with Laguna soon," Rinoa stated with a bit of determination in her voice while blinking the unshed tears away.

"It's only fair!" both girls said in unison. They stared at Squall waiting for some type of response. Squall said nothing and somehow wished that they would go away. He had only been listening to half of the conversation as he kept on glancing toward the cafeteria hoping there would be some time left for a quick lunch when Rinoa finished. Minutes passed and yet they still hadn't budged from their spots.

"I don't have time for this Rinoa. I have to eat quickly and get to a meeting," Squall gruffly shot back.

"When are you going to make time, Squall. You never have time." Rinoa was equally determined not to let this go.

"Um, I'm not sure if I'd be comfortable calling up Laguna right now. I'm really busy. I have tons of paperwork that I need to catch up on... Lionheart needs oiling... laundry? I just think I'd need a bit more time to work up towards calling him. I still have a lot of things to process in my mind about our particularly unique situation and..."

"SQUALL! You promised!" Rinoa loudly huffed while letting go of his uniform. She quickly spun around and ran down the hall towards the dorms with Selphie close behind, calling after her.

_"Okay that was bad... but maybe not TOO bad. Hopefully, she'll get over it. I have lots of more important things to think about right now,"_ he thought _"like lunch."_ He finally continued walking towards the cafeteria and luckily was not impeded by any other people. _"Finally some peace and quiet... well kind of..."_ as he headed into the crowded and loud cafeteria, becoming lost in his thought to the sights and sounds of lunch.

The next day Squall sat at his desk going over yet another pile of pointless paperwork. He wasn't being very productive as his thoughts kept drifting to his rigorous training. Ever since Rinoa had brought up his father a couple of weeks ago he couldn't be at peace unless he was fighting or training. While looking out the window, he noticed the sun was shining amongst a bright blue sky. Too bad he was trapped behind his stupid desk doing boring office work he wasn't even remotely trained for.

_"It seems like a waste of my gunblade skills to make me to be doing so much administrative work,"_ he grumbled inwardly. _"I'd be more suited to be a paper shredder than a paper pusher,"_ he thought while allowing himself a small half-smile while he envisioned taking out his wrath on the never-ending stacks of paper with his beloved Lionheart. Paperwork was the real enemy. He imagined the luminous blue blade slicing through bureaucracy. His teeth clenched as he leaned forward, eyes blaring with the energy of battle. _"Renzokuken this,"_ he thought forcefully while gripping his stapler. _"Blasting Zone would be good... no wait... that takes too much time...How about..."_

Squall's midday reverie was rudely interrupted when Selphie burst through his office door like a yellow whirlwind, sending stacks of paper fluttering down around him like autumn leaves in an Aero spell. Squall sat a bit stunned, but quickly gained his commanderly composure when Rinoa strode into the room. He pretended that he was quite busy with very important office work, as he knit his eyebrows together and started stapling random papers together with imagined purpose. He pounded the stapler so hard that the desk shook causing a cascade of paper clips to rain down on the floor.

Rinoa looked directly at Squall and started speaking. "We know you said you were uncomfortable talking to Laguna, so we took it upon ourselves to do it for you," Rinoa said while giving him a mischievous smile and placing a single hand on her hip. "I explained how we thought it would be wonderful for you guys to get together and have some dinner. I mentioned how you'd promised to do this, and he was so ecstatic about it he barely was making any coherent sense on the phone. I think he was even crying a bit. It was hard to tell because I think he fumbled and dropped the phone and then accidentally kicked it under his desk. It's okay, he eventually got back on the line and confirmed it with us. He said he could take the Ragnarok to get here from Esthar in no time at all. So no problem there." She smiled broadly while putting both hands on her hips.

"We know how busy you are Commander, so don't worry about a thing. We'll pick a restaurant, and all you'll have to do is show up," Selphie said while winking at him and giving him a little SeeD salute.

"Oh, and I want your dinner to be a success, unlike mine. So I think it'd be great if we had all our friends there to support you," Rinoa said while turning her back to him and pretending to be interested in all the military manuals that lined the walls of his office.

"Sir Laguna! Sir Laguna!" Selphie chimed in while pumping her arms up and down in the air. "This is going to be great!"

Squall saw Quistis walking by his office and called her in. "Quistis, please back me up here and tell Selphie and Rinoa that I don't have time for any social dinner parties right now. I'm much too busy to be having a get together with all my friends and Laguna. I'd really appreciate if you'd talk to them for me and clear this up."

Quistis covered her mouth as she let out a small muffled laugh at the Commander's desperate exasperation. "Squall, I'd really appreciate if you'd... go... talk... to... a... wall..." She grabbed her stomach and continued laughing as the other girls joined in on her fun. He even thought he could hear Xu and the Balamb Garden pilot SeeD, what's-his-name, laughing from down the hall too.

_"I really should reprimand her for that. I would if I didn't feel so guilty about being such a jerk and saying that to her in the first place. Why won't anybody let that drop? I wonder if she's been drinking,"_ Squall thought to himself as the girls continued laughing while standing around his office like it was some kind of slumber party. He grasped at the edge of his desk and hung his head in defeat. _"I guess I'll just have to endure this one. Courage, Leonhart." _

The night of the dinner was crisp and clear. After a quiet drive, Squall and Rinoa arrived at the bland chain restaurant that Selphie and Rinoa had picked. It was only a short drive into Balamb, but he was eager to be able to get out of the car. Squall shifted uncomfortably, glad that he had chosen to wear his leather coat instead of his official SeeD uniform. He hurried over to get the passenger side door to open it for Rinoa. He'd eaten here a couple of times. The food wasn't bad, it just wasn't great. He sighed, maybe it was just his attitude that needed work and not the food.

While exiting the car Rinoa said, "we picked this restaurant because it had Garden in the name. Isn't that cute Squall? It's like 'When you're here, you're SeeDs.'" Squall couldn't help notice that Rinoa had gone all out for the occasion, as she looked beautiful in a dark blue knee-length dress and black kitten heels.

"I'm already a SeeD Rinoa. Most of us here are," Squall stated matter-of-factly.

"Well, yeah... but... hmmm..." Rinoa glanced at her feet awkwardly while her smile dimmed and her shoulders slumped. She took time to smooth out the imaginary wrinkles in her dress with one hand while playing with her necklace with the other. Squall sensed her embarrassment, and he leaned forward to take her by the arm and escort her into the restaurant like the gentlemanly knight he was suppose to be.

As they entered, Squall noticed the rest of their party was mulling around the waiting area and chatting with each other. The inside of the restaurant was dark and it took him a minute for his eyes to adjust as it was still light outside. Selphie, in a flared light yellow dress and brown flats, was talking animatedly to Laguna while Irvine stood nodding his head and smiling lopsidedly. Laguna was not yet aware of Squall's arrival as Selphie kept his attention. Zell and Quistis had been standing on lookout for Squall and Rinoa, and were happy to see that they had arrived. Zell energetically waved them over as he motioned to the hostess to seat them all. "They're ready to seat us now, we were waiting for you to show up." Zell remarked.

He motioned for the hostess behind the podium. "Our party has arrived," Zell said loudly. The hostess grabbed some menus and walked past quite a few empty tables to the back of the restaurant where she seated them in private alcove for larger parties.

As everyone congregated around the table the air quickly became tense as no one knew quite where to sit. Laguna tentatively looked over towards Squall. It was obvious that he desperately wanted to hug him. He walked carefully around Selphie and inched towards his son with his arms slightly out. Squall seemed defensive and started to tense up when Selphie, who had not noticed the tension, turned and launched herself into Laguna's arms while exclaiming, "Sir Laguna! I'm so glad you were able to come. I can't wait to hear more of your fun stories! Sit next to me!" She forcibly dragged Laguna over to the head of the table, and everybody quickly took their seats at that point. Laguna ended up at the head of the long table with Rinoa and Selphie on either side of him, and Squall wound up at the opposite end. Selphie kept excitedly talking while digging her little hands into Laguna's arm.

The hostess gave everyone a menu and said, "Your server will be with you shortly" in a bright cheery voice.

"Darlin' why don't you let Laguna have some space while we all try to decide what to order," Irvine softly spoke while lightly patting Selphie on the back. Selphie blushed and released Laguna while she picked up her menu. Irvine tipped his dark cowboy hat at a thankful looking Laguna while Selphie buried her perky face in the menu. Even Irvine had dressed up for the occasion and was wearing a dress shirt and bolero tie, although he did have that same black cowboy hat on. It seemed like only Zell and Squall had not received the memo that this was an event that required dressing up.

After a several silent minutes, the waitress came by and tried taking their orders. Pretty much everybody ordered a pasta dish because that was nearly the only thing that was on the menu. Although there was some commotion as Zell wasn't in the mood for pasta. As usual, he was in the mood for hot dogs, and not much else.

"Sir please, we don't have any hot dogs on our menu," the waitress lightly pleaded while offering a fake smile and shaking her dark wavy hair out of her eyes.

"Yes you do, it's right here!" Zell said while pointing to the back of the menu that listed the options for children.

"Um well, that's for children who are 10 and under," she whispered to him while fiddling with her apron.

Zell leaned back with his hands behind his head and lightly joked, "I bothered saving the world from Ultimecia, so at the very least you could make an exception for me."

Although feeling silly about the exchange with Zell, she decided to just go along with it to make him happy. He basically seemed like a big kid after all. And it was her policy to not make muscular people with face tattoos angry at her.

"I'll take 5 children's hot dog entrees and lots of bread on the side. Thank you." He gave the waitress a big easy smile as she took the menu back from him.

The air still had some of the earlier tension as Squall and Laguna had not spoken much. Laguna seemed very anxious and decided that wine would really help this evening along. While drumming his fingers on the tabletop he called the cute brunette waitress over and ordered some wine to relax. The waitress seemed to take a liking to Mr. Loire as she eyed him and flipped her hair around while taking everybody's drink orders. Sensing the extra attention, Laguna once again became a bit flustered and while motioning with his hands knocked over a glass of water which ended up mostly spilling on Rinoa's lap. Rinoa jumped up with a yelp as the icy water splashed her. Laguna's mouth gaped open as he took a napkin and quickly tried to blot off a bit of the water from Rinoa's lap. Rinoa felt extremely self-conscious and attempted to laugh it off as Laguna realized what he was doing and turned red in the face. The waitress tried to diffuse the situation by apologizing for the mishap and said that the first round of drinks would be on the house. "Nothing cheaper than free," Laguna mumbled while rubbing the back of his neck and looking towards the ceiling. Rinoa, Irvine, Selphie, and the waitress all laughed at the goofy situation, once again in good spirits while Laguna tried to massage out a small leg cramp without drawing further attention to himself.

Squall looked coldly over at the scene. Laguna was hamming it up with the women. Women sure loved him. No matter what goofy thing he said or did, they just wanted to be around him. He was trying to decode the mystery of his father's ability to attract people. _"Maybe if I were a woman I'd be able to get along with him better," _ Squall thought to himself. He saw as Irvine laughed and slapped Laguna on the back after something was said. _"Well if I were a woman... or Irvine..."_

The food came and people kept having a good time. Well most people anyways. Laguna's end of the table was always boisterous and loud while Squall's end of the table was mostly quiet except for the sound of Zell's loud chewing of too many hot dogs and bread. He really was in the hot dog zone, and didn't have much time to either properly breathe or speak. Quistis also sat and quietly stared into her large glass of wine that had been refilled multiple times. She occasionally fiddled with the straps on her dark burgundy dress. She was either quietly drunk or in deep thought.

_"I wonder if she's got a drinking problem," _Squall thought to himself. _"Maybe I should monitor that and see if she's okay."_

"Quistis..." Squall began carefully.

She was absentmindedly touching her flushed face with her pale hands when he began to speak to her. She started to rub her long bare arms against the cold of the restaurant as she lifted her blonde head to look over at him with sad bleary eyes. She slowly pushed some of her soft flaxen hair behind her ears and outstretched her hand towards him. "Talk... wall..." she verbally fumbled and turned away smiling to herself.

_"Ah man, now I'm getting shut out by Quistis! What is going on here tonight?!"_ Squall thought angrily to himself while crossing his arms and looking downwards. He couldn't help but contrast his people skills with his father's. His father made people feel free, easy, and loved while he was pretty much the opposite. He was suddenly mildly disgusted with his... was it jealousy?

Squall's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Zell choking. He quickly turned to hit him on the back but Quistis beat him to it. She was rapidly smacking his back until he was better. Once the martial artist stopped choking he thanked Quistis as she gradually relaxed and slid over onto his shoulders and started snoring. "Maybe I shouldn't try to eat more than one piece of bread at a time," Zell said sheepishly as he put his bread down and tried to carefully reposition Quistis back into her seat. He gave up trying as she slumped forward onto her arms sleepily. Her head made a soft thump as it made contact with the table. Zell and Squall winced simultaneously.

"Hanging out with Laguna is even more fun than hanging out with Ma Dincht, isn't it Squall?" Zell joked playfully while smiling and gesturing widely with his arms. Zell only received a hard stare in response, so he turned away and he continued eating his bread, albeit in small, sensible bites this time.

_"Well, this is what I wanted isn't it? To be left alone mostly? Why can't I just try to say something to him. Wait, shouldn't he be the one to reach out to me" _Squall thought. He looked up and saw all the fun Rinoa and Selphie were having. At one point Selphie tried to get Laguna up and dance with her, even though this wasn't the type of place for that. But nobody really can say no to Selphie. She simply won't let them. She had him caught in the tight unrelenting grip of her tiny arms until his face turned red. They were hopping around so much his long hair fell out of his loose ponytail and fell across his face. He caught his father glancing towards him from beneath his dark hair while looking over Selphie's energetically bouncing shoulder. _"Laguna's ribs are probably getting bruised,"_ he thought with genuine concern for the older man. _"This is going to be a long night for him... It's emotionally exhausting because of me, and well, physically exhausting because of Selphie..."_

Afterwards, they drove back to Balamb Garden in the darkness. Rinoa looked through the window at the stars above without saying anything. Suddenly they both said, "Next time could you sit next to me?" Rinoa smiled and turned towards him as he gripped the steering wheel harder.

"I think tonight went better than expected," Rinoa said. "I mean I don't know if you and Laguna said much of anything to each other, but I'm glad that you guys were together in the same room at least. Baby steps. I know he was very happy that you let him come see you at all. He kept asking about you all night. I think he didn't want to approach you lest you run away."

Some of Squall's irritation melted away when he found that his father had been asking about him. "Tonight wasn't so bad. Thanks for being there with me Rinoa." He reached out and patted her on the hand as she gave him a little surprised look at being thanked. "See Rinoa, I kept my promise," he said proudly while shaking his hair out of his eyes.

"Maybe next time you'll be able to keep your promise without me forcing you to," she said playfully while scrunching up her nose at him and laughing.

_"Maybe I'll try to call Laguna sometime when nobody is around too,"_ he thought to himself as he pulled into Balamb Garden's parking garage while hiding a small smile.

The end.

This is my first fanfiction, I wrote it with my husband for fun. We'd appreciate any comments. Thanks! :)


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